Day: April 26, 2025

Claw games are a big deal. We stepped into a claw game arcade to check it out. Each try costs 100 yen (US 70 cents). You can grab anything from a big stuffed animal to a package of cookies to a transformer car. Yeah, I was tempted to try but..oh well I have no excuse….

Touring the Meiji era residences its been evident that in the rooms where guests were greeted and tea was served it was a carefully choreographed seated affair.  The hearth (“Ro”) was fitted into the floor; there was an alcove (“Toko-no-ma”) where art was displayed; and there were a set of shelves for preparation (“Mizuya”) where the…

From the top-of-the-stairs entrance to the Saiyogi Zen temple we climbed to yesterday. This was after we went up the gated stairs to the Ryokokuji temple.

Saiyoji is a Zen temple In the Utatsuyama district of Kanazawa and is noted for its bell tower which dates to the 1850s. The architecture, the sign said, uses fan raftering where the elements are arranged radially. It seems this is a typical structure for Zen Buddhist temples.  I got a not so great photo…

Utatsuyama is the quietest and oldest of the temple districts in Kanazawa sporting 100 temples. After today, we have 96 to go. You won’t find any crowds in this neck of the woods. No cutesy cafes or souvenir shops. In Utatsuyama, nestled in the foothills of the Japanese Alps, is Shinjoji Temple. A bit of…

Not if you’ve decided to drop by the D.T. Suzuki Museum in Kanazawa. Which we did after hiking up to some wonderful shrines in the hills overlooking the city.  When I was in college my Zen reading included Suzuki along with Alan Watts.  I discovered after we got here that Suzuki was raised in Kanazawa and there…

The Kanazawa Gobō, a fortified temple complex backed by tall hills and flanked on two sides by rivers, became, in the sixteenth century, the site of a castle built by the Maeda clan which ruled the Kaga province for fourteen generations. Part of the castle’s domain became the Kenrokuen gardens, so after visiting the gardens…